Radio: High Voltage

by Chuck Eddy
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January 4, 2016

What with AC/DC's boundless, bruisingly potent and incomparably single-minded catalog finally pummeling its way into the Napster universe, this seems an opportune time to highlight our radio station named after and programmed in the spirit of one of their songs: High Voltage. "Ripping through your speakers, these hard and heavy metal classics are sure to get your adrenaline flowing," High Voltage has promised since its inception, and the means by which it accomplishes that physically fit task is its time-tested high-decibel rock from the post-psychedelic late '60s (Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, The Stooges) through the pre-grunge early '90s (King's X, Faith No More, Pantera, Enuf Z'Nuff). The bulk of the music comes from the '70s, a dazed and confused decade in which "hard rock" and "heavy metal" were one and the same and truly ruled the roost, inspiring donuts across 7-11 parking lots coast to coast.

The station's indelible butt-rock from that decade goes heaviest on not only AC/DC but also Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Purple, Foghat, Foreigner, Heart, KISS, Led Zeppelin, the New York Dolls, Ted Nugent, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen and ZZ Top. But B- and C-level hard rock from the time period -- Angel, April Wine, Atomic Rooster, Bang, Brownsville Station, Budgie, on through the alphabet -- is by no means neglected.

Neither are '80s-associated bangers from Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Anthrax, Metallica and Slayer -- not to mention more Priest, Maiden and Motörhead than you'll probably know what to do with. And if you're surprised by an old-school obscurity you never heard before from Bedlam or Dragonfly, Earth Quake or the Heavy Metal Kids, Wrathchild or Witchfynde, don't say you weren't warned: This High Voltage doesn't shock just the surface; it electrocutes deep. Gotta get your kicks some way, as Bon Scott screeched in the song of the same name. And one thing nobody can deny about High Voltage Radio is that it sure does kick!